Delaware Football 2026 Positional Preview: Quarterbacks

Welcome to the first positional preview of the 2026 season! This preseason’s framework will cover the four who’s: 1) who is back 2) who is new 3) who said what during the local media availability and 4) who (or what) caught my attention. Let us know if this is a format that you appreciate or if you would like us to try something new.

*Note: All snap counts, PFF grades, and recognition are from the 2025 season

Who is Back?

#4 Nick Minicucci (932 offensive snaps. 71.8 PFF Grade. All-CUSA Second Team)
- Passing: 322-512 (62.9%), 3683 yards, 23 TD, 7 INT
- Rushing: 112 carries, 235 yards, 10 TD
#16 Braden Streeter (45 offensive snaps. 70.5 PFF Grade)
- Passing: 12-19 (63.2%), 98 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
- Rushing: 1 carry, 1 yard, 0 TD
#2 Riley Trujillo (5 offensive snaps. 43.3 PFF Grade)
- Rushing: 3 carries, -2 yards, 0 TD
#11 EJ Archield Jr.

Who is New?

#7 Tyler Bell (High School)
#19 Sean Sutherland (High School, Walk-On)

Who Said What?

Delaware Head Coach Ryan Carty
- (On Nick Minicucci’s offseason development): “It’s been such a great thing to watch how fast he’s been able to process and I think he’ll be the first to tell you he’s never going to stop getting better.”
Delaware Quarterbacks Coach Garrett Smith
- (On shifting from tight ends coach to quarterbacks coach): “I’m fired up. I grew up playing the quarterback position, but helping Coach Archer out with the receivers when we were at Sam Houston and being a tight ends coach to know the game well-rounded. I couldn’t be more excited to be back in the position I grew up playing my whole life.”
- (On Nick Minicucci’s progression from last season to now): “He’s super hungry and wants all of the hard questions. He wants to know the situations… and that’s kudos to him because he’s the one that’s coming in asking for more meetings. It’s been really fun to see the work ethic he’s been putting in throughout the spring and summer.”
- (On keeping the QB room engaged): “We have a great room of great kids that want to see each other do really well. When somebody makes a really good throw, you see all five other quarterbacks get really excited… so I think it starts with the excitement of wanting to get better as a group.”
- (On categorizing the skill sets of the entire QB room): “I think we recruit very similar quarterbacks. We recruit really good people because that’s important to us. We need to have a really good culture on our team, so that’s the first thing we look for. But then across the board, we’re looking for somebody that can sit back and process. And next, you go to the athletic traits. To be honest with you, yes there’s a couple guys that probably throw it a little bit better and there’s a couple guys that might have a step athletically. But all of our quarterbacks are very similar because we recruit guys that we want to run the ball and also needs to be able to throw the ball as well.”
Delaware Quarterback Nick Minicucci
- (On improvements leading into 2026): “I had a pretty decent year last year, but there’s so much more that I need to work on. Like the first practice out here today… just trying to make sure my processing speed is that much faster, my decision-making is that much cleaner, and just being extremely accurate with the football. Knowing who is out there and how I can throw certain people balls is honestly a good thing that I’ve been practicing, and it all really comes with time.”
- (On last season’s fall camp to now): “I’ve told Coach Carty and Coach Smith, ‘I want you to push me as hard as you can and hold me to the highest possible standard because if I’m falling short, that means I’m letting the team down.’ So I don’t want to ever really get in that mindset that I’m satisfied of what I did, because that’s not the case at all. There’s so much more room for me to grow to help this team become Conference USA champions… because that’s the end goal for us.”
- (On working with Coach Smith this offseason into fall camp): “We haven’t missed a beat. Him and Coach Carty are always on the same page and it’s very easy to go to him if you have questions. He’s always shooting you straight because he’s played at the highest level. He’s a really good coach and good person to be around.”

Who (or What) Caught my Attention?

All of Delaware HC Ryan Carty, QBs coach Garrett Smith, and QB Nick Minicucci had a lot of great things to say about the first annual quarterback summit, which included former Blue Hen greats Joe Flacco, Rich Gannon, Nolan Henderson, and Scott Brunner sharing their knowledge on and off the field to the current Delaware quarterback room and staff. It sounds like this event was the start of many hopeful years to come.
Before camp started, the Delaware coaching staff was included with all colleges in Maryland in an invite to a Baltimore Ravens training camp practice to continue to learn and develop from a professional organization.
QB Nick Minicucci was aware that his body language portrayal was not where it needed to be at the end of last season, which became a focal point of offseason progression for the 2026 CUSA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. “I don’t want people to think that I’m a bad teammate and I don’t care about the guys. I’m pissed off because I got sacked when really I thought it was my fault. So the body language has been something I’m working on and I reminded Coach Carty to be like that all of camp for me.”